New smart bands are coming, and the hoop is scared

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I flagged Smart Band as one of them Technology trends of 2026So it’s interesting to see that rollout, based on what I was seeing Fitbit Air And Buzz Around Garmin Circa (not yet confirmed) WhoopHaving been the undisputed leader in the field for a long time, it now has a lot of competition. Here’s what I’m seeing, and what I think we should expect going forward.

Fitness trackers have reached the end of their evolution, and their universe is being rebooted.

To explain how we got here, I’ll take you through a little history lesson with the theme: What do we expect from a fitness tracker? Fitbit has been working on this question for over 15 years A simple digital pedometer Which sticks in your pocket. As more advanced technology became more affordable, Fitbits got lights and buttons and screens and heart rate sensors—the more you could pack into the device, the better. This evolution continued until some Fitbits were full-on smartwatches. To be honest, until about last year, I told you that there was no longer a meaningful distinction between “smart watches” and “fitness trackers”—they had merged into the same product category.

In parallel with that evolution, smartwatches and fitness watches also gained features, and then stopped when trackers caught on. Garmins began as bulky GPS units that you strapped to your wrist; The Apple Watch was an extension of your smartphone that was able to measure heart rate. Over time these categories merged into a clock-shaped format that had one AMOLED Screens, heart rate sensors, and so many software features that companies can figure out how to fit into the picture. “Do I want an Apple Watch or a Garmin?” A fair question to ask, because the overlap between fitness watches and smartwatches is an almost-but-carefully-circular Venn diagram.

But smartwatches, fitness watches, and fitness trackers have pretty much come to the same place: they have all the features people want. In fact, they have More Features than people want. This World’s fastest marathon runner Seems perfectly happy with Old Garmin It was below the line when it launched five years ago.

Tech companies can no longer thrive by reaching people who haven’t heard of smartwatches; Most everyone who wants one already has one. Companies also have a hard time convincing people to upgrade the devices they already own, because newer models don’t have killer features that older ones are missing.

These days, upgrades mostly involve putting high-end features in lower-end watches, which isn’t a strategy that can work for long. It brings us nice benefits like flashlight Garmin’s forerunner 970But the result is that hardware companies like Garmin are raising their hardware prices, and wondering how they can make their money on something more profitable and long-lasting like subscriptions. (Garmin seems to be grasping at straws on subscription features, too, but it is Another story.)

Everyone can load apps onto their phones these days, so devices no longer need to stand alone. As a tech company, if all the features of your fitness tracker are in the app and your customers aren’t excited about new hardware, you can go back to basics and offer a simple sensor on a strap. We are seeing that now.

How the smart bands found their new location

“Smart bands” haven’t been a tech category for a long time. Until recently there was only one major product in the field: hoop bands. The hoop’s hardware was never that fancy—just a heart rate sensor on the strap. Both the clasp and the charger were (and are) cleverly designed, and the focus is on everything But Electronic interior. You get the device for “free”—it’s the apps that keep you busy, and the apps that make you think you’re getting $239/year worth out of it.

My review of Hoop 4.0 Worth a read if you want to see how this fared over time (no longer the current model). In the two years I’ve owned the band, its app has gained a ton of new features. Hoop markets itself to athletes who want to monitor their recovery and optimize their sleep schedule, and the app has always provided a wealth of data along with tools to focus on what’s most important.

But not everyone wants to pay those subscription fees, or think of themselves as athletes who hyper-optimize their routines. For years, people would pop up on tech forums and ask if there was a way to get the same device without paying the hoops for a subscription, but nothing materialized.

But last year, that started to change. I’m not sure if there’s a reason for that timing, other than companies choosing to focus on the feature additions I discussed above earlier. If there turns out to be a legal challenge or technical problem, I’d love to know. In any case, we got it polar loop ($199), and the Amazfit Helio Strap ($99), both very basic devices that feed data into humdrum applications. of Garmin Index sleep band ($169) somehow managed to equal More Not even a more basic, tracking exercise than this – despite apparently being built to do so.

All three come from companies that already had their own apps that paired with smartwatches. Creating a smart band doesn’t require any new software features, and the manufacturing side should be pretty easy for a company used to making watches. Instead of building a watch with a sensor, you stick the sensor directly on the strap and send it out into the world. With that in mind, both Polar and Garmin’s bands felt overpriced. The price of the Amazfit makes a lot more sense, and from what I can tell, it looks like demand has outstripped supply. Good luck finding the Amazfit Helio Strap anywhere.

The Fitbit Air finally puts everything together, and the hoopla scares are worth it

Google only Announced their own smart band, Fitbit AirAnd I think we’re seeing a rare moment of Google reading the room and offering exactly what people want. I say this with great uncertainty, though—it all depends on whether the health coaches are credible enough to power the new app. My tests were from the previous version of Coach Not promising.

But if the Fitbit Air and its new app live up to Google’s promises, we have a smart band that costs the same price as the Amazfit Helio Strap ($99), with a much larger customer base and better name recognition. And A full-featured app that provides analytics and coaching just like Hoops.

I’m not saying there will be Google Health Totally As good as the Hoop app is, but if it’s nearly as good, and you only have to pay $99 once instead of $239 per year, almost everyone except diehard athletes will probably choose Fitbit.

And there we get the next stage of evolution. the same A trend I have seen in smart ringsSmart band makers are realizing that hardware isn’t a cash cow, and people don’t want to pay for subscriptions. The money has to come from somewhere else.

Hoop is already in the process of thinking of itself as a health company. you can Book blood test through Hoop appAnd the hoop bus announced (somewhat defensively, just after Fitbit Air announced) that it would offer video consults with healthcare professionals as a paid add-on service. Healthcare is a huge market, because US companies have endless opportunities to take money to fill the gaps in our fundamentally flawed healthcare system.

What will I buy in 2026?

So right now—or coming soon—we have a few viable options for smart bands. What I like the most is:

• reigning champ, Whoop. It still does a lot of things that other bands don’t (like tracking recovery from strength training). If you want the best, I’d still go with the hoop. Get the Peak membership ($239/year) because the more expensive Life ($359/year) doesn’t offer any extras that are worth the price.

• New Fitbit AirWith the huge caveat that I haven’t tried it yet, and almost no one has. It’s the cheapest smart band (paired with the Amazfit Helio Strap for $99) and works with a full-featured app. It also works with Pixel watches, so you can have a smart band and a smartwatch feeding data into the same app for simultaneous analysis.

• This Amazfit Helio StrapIf you can get it. It’s also $99, and can work with any of Amazfit’s watches. It’s not as full-featured as the two I named above, but it’s a good basic choice.

i will do not Recommend polar loop. It costs more for what you get and any of the above three will give you a better experience. I would not recommend Garmin Index Either the Sleep Band, unless you’re a Garmin user who really wants something comfortable to sleep on and doesn’t mind the extra cost.

The Luna Band announced at CES hasn’t materialized yet, we don’t know the price, and there aren’t any smartwatches on the US market that work with the Luna app. Garmin’s Circa Band—if it’s real, and if it really is a hoop-style smart band—is unlikely to dethrone any of my top picks. But I guess we will have to wait and see.